Daily Journal: Law offers redevelopment agency replacement

“Gov. Jerry Brown heeded calls from lawmakers this legislative session by approving a slew of housing-related bills designed to help quench the statewide demand…

The cost of building multi-family affordable housing projects often stretches into the tens of millions of dollars and requires cobbling together of numerous local, state and federal sources. But local governments have been stripped of funds due to the loss of RDAs, which set aside almost $1.2 billion annually. Other financial sources have dwindled in recent years with California’s most recent housing bond nearing depletion, the recession, and significant cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, said Michael Lane, policy director for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and president of the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County’s Board of Directors.

Lane worked closely with Mullin on the new law to address the lack of affordable housing.

“I think unfortunately, it’s a humanitarian crisis and I think it has become the number one issue in the [state] Capitol,” Lane said, calling the new law one of many tools needed “to help get us back to where we were before…”